NGAGE was touted as the next big thing in gaming. Nokia used it as artillery to jump into the battle of portable gaming which had a large market but non-existent players. NGAGE, currently, is being targeted mainly at youth. But as imagined by the company, it has not been accepted by the youth at a large scale. First it was NGAGE which had a lots of design flaws. The company, being quick in recognizing, corrected the flaws and launched NGAGE QD.
NGAGE-QD has the potential to revolutionize the gaming industry world wide. But it has not become a mass phenomenon not because it is not good enough but because the vision of company is limited to selling handsets. For a product to become a mass phenomenon, killer ness is what is needed. If you bring a radical new product and go and sell it with the same strategy, it won’t work. I am going to propose a completely new model of business for selling NGAGE-QD and making it a mass phenomenon.
Flaws:
First and foremost thing is pricing. NGAGE-QD is priced around Rs. 10,000, which is beyond any teenager or youth in India at least. The youth as such do not earn money. They rely on their parents for any financial support. Yes it is true that they get to choose the handset, but within a limited budget. Not many parents in the country can afford a 10000 handset in their children’s hands. And also, as biggies (read parents) usually do not play games, they fell awkward with its design and do not buy this cell.
Lack of camera is another issue. The youth mainly is crazy about camera. They find having a camera in one’s handset is kinda cool. When they have to make a decision between NGAGE-QD and some camera phone. They generally opt for later. This is because the camera phone has got games but the games phone (NGAGE) has no camera.
Strategy:
Just bring out two models of NGAGE-QD. One with camera and one without camera. Sell the phones in loss. And make profits with the games sold. This idea might seem a bit radical. But believe me, Gillette sells the razors at loss but makes money from the blades. One only purchases NGAGE once. But, they games are purchased again and again and again. NOKIA might bear the loss one-time but imagine the profits from the games when this product becomes a mass phenomenon. Say, if NGAGE (without camera model) is priced at 5000. The youth will long to buy it because it has got everything which he needs. Plus the price is not too high.
Suppose the games are priced at 200 RS. Then Nokia can sell the games like piece of cakes. RS. 200 are in reach of every kid and teenager. And parents won’t mind the occasional purchase of games. But when this occasional purchase is carried on for months multiplied by millions of them, you get lots of profits.
The NGAGE (with camera) must be priced somewhere around 10000 RS. The youth who can afford a handset worth this much money will immediately jump to get this phone. Because according to them it has got everything: camera (most important), 3d games, MP3, Bluetooth and a cool design. The phone’s capability must be accompanied with software which uses the camera of the phone. Like face morphing, games characters with players photo, etc.
NOKIA can also make money by selling memory cards. As the hype around NGAGE increases, new application/games will have to be made. Users will need memory cards to store these games/apps/MP3s/Photos etc. The youth is space crazy. He wants to preserve every photo he has taken. He wants to store every MP3 he has got on the PC. And every game in the market.
So if Nokia uses the strategy suggested above, it will see its profits soaring up. And beware Sony’s PSP can overtake NGAGE if proper steps are not taken by it.